i 1 8 THE NA TURE-STVDY REVIEW [ 2 . j-march, .906 



honev, and the waste of the latter was almost as great in quantity as that 

 obtained. This slovenly way of bee-keeping, combined with the ravages 

 of the bee moth, would have set a limit to the davs of bee-keeping in this 

 country had not means been devised to check it. 



Under the foregoing adverse circumstances thinking men looked around 

 for something that would be the salvation of the bees. It was long believed 

 that the Ligurian or Italian bee was an insect far superior in many ways to 

 the English bee. Not only was it superior as a honev-gatherer, but it was 

 reported to be far more alert, and more persevering in resisting the attacks of 

 enemies, more especially the bee-moth which in England is known as the 

 wax-moth. So great was the onslaught with these moth pests that people 

 owning as many as 200 colonies in a few years found themselves without a 

 single bee. How to contend against this pest was then unknown. The bar- 

 frame style of hive was little known, and the method of fighting the moth in 

 the gin-case hives was an unknown quantity; and so it remains to this day. 

 Not only were the bees that were kept in the crude methods of the dav 

 decimated by this pest, but those that had taken to bush life suffered, per- 

 haps, to a greater extent than those more immediately under the control of 

 man. On the Clarence River, to my knowledge, in the latter part of the 

 sixties, it was not unusual for men to take a horse and dray and go in search 

 of bees' nests, returning with two or three hundred nests in the same tree. 

 But in later years these, through the ravages of the bee moth have nearly all 

 disappeared. From the general slaughter among the bees caused by the pest 

 named, some few bee-keepers, with more watchfulness than others, saved a 

 tew colonies out of the general wreck. To perpetuate and multiply these 

 was the question of questions. The Italian bee was looked to for overcom- 

 ing the trouble caused by the bee-moth, and enthusiastic bee-keepers were 

 not long in importing the far-famed golden and dull brown colored Italian 

 bees. (Excerpt from Agricultural Gazette of N. S. W .*) 



Cultivating the Fringed Gentian. For years horticulturists have been 

 trying to grow in gardens this splendid wild flower, but success has been very 

 limited. According to an article in the December Garden Magazine, Mr. 

 Thomas Murray, a horticulturist at Tuxedo Park, N. Y., has succeeded in 

 growing numerous specimens. His method is given in great detail; in essen- 

 tials he germinates the seeds on finely broken sphagunum moss, covering 

 only with a newspaper to prevent rapid drving out. 



Among many interesting points we note: (1) It is not an annual, as the 

 books say, but a biennial. The seeds ripened in the fall of 1905 will make 

 a little rosette of leaves in 1906 and the bloom will come in 1907. (2) It 



